(KYTX) - East Texans fascinated by space are captivated by the brand new images of Mars. The Rover Curiosity is taking those pictures after an eight-month 352 million-mile journey.
Scientists are calling the pictures simply awesome. It was years in the making for team member Ken Edgett.
"We'll talk about it some more (chokes up) in a second. Um (heavy breathing) I've waited a long time for this to come back." Edgett said.
"I was actually up at midnight watching it land and everything." said Robert Parish, Coordinator of TJC's Earth and Space Science Education Center. "And, once they brought up the picture on the screen, I captured it and uploaded it to Facebook and everybody."
He says Curiosity's landing shows we're pushing the boundaries of space exploration.
"We can actually do such a thing- travel millions of miles and land on a tiny dot. Some compare it to shooting an arrow across the world and aiming it at a pinhead."
9-year-old Jenna Jeffus is amazed.
"I thought it was cool how they made it go onto Mars and on the back of it." she said.
Although it may take a few years, Parish says Curiosity's trip is proving one day we'll be able to send people to explore Mars.
"It will definitely be possible one day."
Candace Black, who's been watching the Curiosity with anticipation, believes this is just the beginning.
"It's definitely revolutionary that we landed on there. And, I think there's so much more that Curiosity will be able to get from being on Mars." she said.
NASA wants to use Curiosity to determine the habitability of life on Mars and to look for biological signs. Carbon-based molecules, Nitrogen and Oxygen are some of the basic building blocks of life.
